Gallic Books bags ‘chilling’ début from Parry

Gallic Book has bagged Orpheus Builds a Girl, the “disturbingly brilliant” debut novel by Heather Parry.  

Gina Rozner acquired UK and Commonwealth rights from Emma Shercliff at Laxfield Literary Associates. Translation and screen rights will be handled by Blake Friedmann Literary Agency, in association with Laxfield Literary Associates. The novel is scheduled for publication in autumn 2022.  

Orpheus Builds a Girl won the Laxfield Literary Launch Prize for unpublished manuscripts 2021. It is the fictionalised account of the true story of a German doctor in 1920s Florida who is obsessed with a young, terminally ill Cuban American patient who, following her death, lived with the exhumed body for seven years.  

Rozner said: “Orpheus Builds a Girl is an absolute marvel of a book. An extraordinarily confident and accomplished debut, it reminds me of Edward Carey’s work: chilling, strange and brilliantly written. We’re very excited to be working with her.” 

“I’m so pleased to have found such a wonderful home for Heather and Orpheus at Gallic”, Shercliff commented. “The team’s passion for this disturbingly brilliant novel shone through from their very first email and I’m delighted that she is in such great, gothic hands. I know they’ll do justice to Heather’s distinctive and talented voice.”  

Parry added: “I’m absolutely thrilled that Orpheus has landed at Gallic, who have published so many writers I admire. To have a publishing team that not only understand the soul of your novel but who you are as a writer is a dream for any debut novelist. I’m hugely grateful to both Gina and Emma for bringing this book home.”